March 2010 High-Volume Spay/Neuter Clinic
Clinic with a Twist (or Two)
11 - 15 March, 2010
A phenomenal amount of work goes into staging a 5-day high-volume clinic. Months, even years, before the fact, the groundwork is laid. PATA is fortunate to have an experienced planning group, a core of organized, hardworking volunteers. For the fifth year running, they carried off an amazingly complicated feat, beautifully.
This year's clinic ran like clockwork, with barely a hiccough, even when unexpected incidents scrambled the mix (more on that, below).
Receptionists hard at work, caged patients with "charts" attached
Clinic reception was staged in the main auditorium of Casa Ejidal in Salaqua, with only a desk, a box of forms, stacks of empty cages, and a handful of helpful volunteers. This handful coped with the controlled chaos that was a roomful of pets, owners, vets, assistants, forms, scales, and cages.
As part of reception, each animal was assigned a tracking number. With up to fifty animals flowing through the system, daily, reliable identification was critical. Like the identification bracelets that human patients wear in hospitals, our clinic patients also had IDs; dogs received bright green numbered collars and cats wore numbered pieces of tape.
Each animal's ID number corresponded to its numbered paperwork, its chart, which was attached to its cage and moved with the animal through the system, from reception to pre-op, surgery, recovery and discharge. As each animal received care, the chart was updated. Although the bussling clinic looked like chaos, treatment of the each animal was very tightly monitored.
Patient wearing his green
ID collar ready to move on to pre-op
A caged dog is carried into pre-op
Ultimately, each patient was logged-in, health-checked, weighed, caged, assigned a reference number and staged to move on to prep, where they received pre-op treatment.
Dr. Janet
making do with equipment on-hand
A very busy OR
Then it was on to surgery and their meeting with our most unusual medical team.
This year's clinic was yet another international medical effort, just like past clinics. Veterinarians from Manzanillo, Mexico City, Texas and Maryland participated, as well as additional volunteers from Mexico, Texas and one amazing volunteer, Laurie, who flew in from England to help (her fourth PATA clinic!).
This year we also added Fernando Garcia, a dog trainer from Colima, to our cadre. He not only assisted with the medical clinic but also helped dog owners with training tips.
Rescuers and lucky rescuee
Legbone protruding
on another traffic accident victim
Besides sterilizing 286 animals in five days, over 300 doses of rabies vaccine and 173 5-in-1 vaccines were administered. And that's not all ... there were the additional, unplanned, medical emergencies to deal with. One case was reported in our newsletter (here's the full story). Two volunteers witnessed a dog get hit by a car on their way to the clinic. They gathered up the stunned victim and hustled him to the clinic, where he was thoroughly checked and then pampered back to health.
Another emergency the docs dealt with was a dog with a severe compound fracture. The owner had been unable to pay for medical help, but when he heard of the free clinic, he brought the injured dog to Casa Ejidal. The dog was transported for x-rays, treated for infection, and then the broken leg was amputated. All in a day's work for our professionals!
Discounting the treatment of accident victims, the clinic's final tally was 286 total animals sterilized, free of charge:
- 43 male cats
- 70 female cats
- 41 male dogs
- 132 female dogs
Donations made this clinic possible, and donations of supplies greatly reduced the amount of materials purchased, and thus reduced our out-of-pocket expenses. For this clinic, our expenditures fell to an amazing $12 per animal. Compare that to past years when the cost was $22 per animal.
Volunteers and donors, the folks who make free clinics click. Thank-you, everyone!
